Starting October, new EU-wide rules on the transparency of political advertising will come into effect. The regulation purportedly aims to curb information manipulation and foreign interference in elections. For example, it requires clear disclosure of whether an ad was paid for by a political actor and whether the ad was targeted using personal data.
Rather than comply with the bloc’s transparency rules on political advertising, media giant Meta announced today that it will stop running political, electoral or social issues ads in the European Union beginning this October. The company claimes the new Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) is overly restrictive and burdensome for advertisers, and creates a complex and legally uncertain environment.
Meta added that the decision will not affect other policies regarding political debates for EU residents. Politicians will still be allowed to post content on their social networks, but they won’t be able to pay to promote it.
Google made a similar move last year, stating that it would stop serving political advertising in the EU ahead of the TTPA’s enforcement. The company cited concerns that the definition of “political advertising” was too broad to ensure compliance.
However, even banning paid ads doesn’t guarantee that political content won’t slip through the usually automated ad monitoring systems. In such cases, tech giants could still be held accountable under the EU’s transparency rules.
